Page 62 - moby-dick

begged him as well as I could, to accelerate his toilet some-
what, and particularly to get into his pantaloons as soon as
possible. He complied, and then proceeded to wash him-
self. At that time in the morning any Christian would have
washed his face; but Queequeg, to my amazement, content-
ed himself with restricting his ablutions to his chest, arms,
and hands. He then donned his waistcoat, and taking up a
piece of hard soap on the wash-stand centre table, dipped it
into water and commenced lathering his face. I was watch-
ing to see where he kept his razor, when lo and behold, he
takes the harpoon from the bed corner, slips out the long
wooden stock, unsheathes the head, whets it a little on his
boot, and striding up to the bit of mirror against the wall,
begins a vigorous scraping, or rather harpooning of his
cheeks. Thinks I, Queequeg, this is using Rogers’s best cut-
lery with a vengeance. Afterwards I wondered the less at
this operation when I came to know of what fine steel the
head of a harpoon is made, and how exceedingly sharp the
long straight edges are always kept.
The rest of his toilet was soon achieved, and he proud-
ly marched out of the room, wrapped up in his great pilot
monkey jacket, and sporting his harpoon like a marshal’s
baton.

1